CAG Book Talk

Outsourcing Surveillance: Online Opinion Management in China

Digital technology facilitates information sharing among activists; however, it also affords autocrats new vectors of control, allowing them to surveil and subjugate dissenters. Yet, in China—the world’s most powerful autocratic state where most of the dissent takes place online before it spillovers to the street—we argue the state’s prowess in digital surveillance stems from the co-optation of market forces. In this book, we examine how the Chinese state manages, moderates, and represses online opinion. Drawing on public procurement documents, we study how the Chinese Party-state at national and subnational levels have intended to manage online expression of public opinion. Private corporations, along with for-profit arms of state-owned enterprises and public sector organizations, are extensively involved in surveillance of public opinion. This opens up a Pandora’s box of state‒business dynamics in China. 

Seminar Room 2-2

Manasseh Meyer Building

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

469E Bukit Timah Road

Singapore 259774

 

Fri 8 January 2027
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

Lynette Ong

Lynette Ong

Distinguished Professor of Chinese Politics, University of Toronto; Director the China Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

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Chin-Hao Huang

Chin-Hao Huang

Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation and Associate Professor in Political Science, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

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